After a multi-million dollar PR campaign touting their charitable work failed to improve their image, the executives at Philip Morris Companies have decided on a wholesale corporate makeover, centered around a name change to the lofty sounding Altria.

Gone will be the two-headed deer crest familiar to millions of tobacco addicts. In its place will be a mosaic logo reminiscent of a Rubik's Cube-perhaps to represent their diverse (and non-cigarette) interests. It's a dramatic, creative move, and P.M. executives hope they can convince the public that they are something other tobacco merchants.

The November 16th 2001 announcement comes on the heels of what has widely been seen as a failed $250 million dollar corporate image advertising campaign, which highlighted the company's charitable contributions and downplayed the deadly and addictive tobacco products that built the company. After spending the quarter billion dollars ceaselessly touting their philanthropic efforts, the tobacco giant still ranked second to last -- beating only exploding tire maker Bridgestone Firestone -- in the in a survey of corporate reputations, conducted by The Reputation Institute and Harris Interactive.

From the Whitney at Altria site:

This Branch Museum and all of its programs are funded by Altria Group,Inc. For more than forty years, Altria Group,Inc., has been a major supporter of the arts and has contributed to museums, theaters, dance companies, music groups, and other cultural institutions around the world. The association between the Whitney Museum of American Art and Altria Group, Inc. dates back to 1967, when the corporation established a special purchase fund for the Museum. Since that time, Altria Group, Inc. has made substantial contributions to the operations of the Museum and has sponsored several important Whitney exhibitions.

I don't care if they pay to gold-plate the Whitney's urinals. As far as I'm concerned, they continue to be drug-pushing scum.